If, for example, you were to change your life from the northern half of Australia to the southern half (or vice versa), this would mean accepting very different climatic conditions. It is something that Australians are contemplating to avoid impacts of the climate change they hope to face.
So how long would it take us adapt move from one climate to another, and can we do anything to ease the transition?
Ollie Jay, director of the Center for Heat and Health Research at the University of Sydney, says for ABC News that “the term acclimatization “It is used a lot.” In Sydney, the ‘heat and health’ professor says this refers to adaptation to the environment, and highlights that there are two types of acclimatization that are useful to understand: “There is a physiological adaptation and then there is a behavioral adaptation.”
Regarding physiological adaptation, Professor Jay states: “Our body can adapt quite completely when we are exposed to a severe thermal stress”.
When you physiologically acclimatize to the heat, he says, your resting body temperature drops. As you begin to have this lower temperature, the body moves away from the temperatures that can cause damage.
“These adaptive responses are very good at providing physiological protection against heat,” he says.
However, Professor Jay says you have to be exposed to quite extreme temperatures to see any of these protections: “The stimulus needed to induce these adaptations It’s really quite severe.”
Even in very hot weather, unless the physical effort If it’s part of your job, you’re unlikely to be exposed to the necessary “stimulus,” he says.
In a heat acclimatization study, Professor Jay says participants exercised at moderate to vigorous intensity in 45-degree heat and high humidity, for 90 minutes to two hoursfor seven to ten consecutive days.
“I think the mistake most people make is assuming that these physiological adaptations they occur more easily than they do, and secondly, that they are due to genetic factors or country of origin or something like that,” says Dr. Jay.
The expert also points out that there is a limit to the physiological benefits that exposure to heat can bring: “It’s not that you continue to adapt, but that you stagnate.”
And, “if you are no longer exposed to heat, in a matter of days, (that adaptive effect) will begin to decline.”
According to Professor Jay, behavioral adaptations are the “ways we respond to an environment” or “tricks of the trade.”
The expert spent an “absolutely miserable” first winter in Ottawa, Canada (where he lived before moving to Australia) because “I didn’t know all the little tricks to keep warm and deal with various types of environmental hazards.” But as he learned them throughout the year, it became easier.
“Behavioral adaptation” to a new environment can come from personal experience and experience and cultural practices. After a big move, “adaptations will happen relatively quickly over the course of a few weeks.”
Also “there is a dissociation between how you feel and whether you are hot” and our “thermal perception” is something separate.
The adaptive thermal comfort model proposes “that the temperature at which you feel uncomfortably warm it is influenced by a moving average of the previous 10 days that you have been exposed to,” he says.
Harry Brown is a postdoctoral researcher, also at the Heat and Health Research Centre, University of Sydney. Dr. Brown completed a doctorate on acclimatization to seasonal heat and says there are behavioral changes that can be made if you have moved to a warmer climate.
“It is important to stay hydrated, seek shade when necessary and use the adequate number of layers”says the expert.
According to him, being aware of the additional stress that heat can place on the body can also help.
Going from a warm climate to a cold one could be considered a slightly easier adjustment that involves behavioral changes, such as add extra layers of clothinghe adds.
“There is some evidence that our adaptive response to cold is much more behavioral than physiological” says Professor Jay.
According to counselor Sayaka Sayeed, a major move “can be very anxiety-provoking, but also exciting.”
Sayeed, who now resides in Gadigal Land in Sydney, says that after moving around a lot, it now takes him three to six months to “get all the basics under control and discover my new routine.”
However, “the entire first year is about adapting to a new environment, a new place, find your new community and discover what your new life will be like in a different place.”
Sayeed says it’s important to recognize that a big move “is also a big move.” emotional adaptation and sensory… (so) it is both a psychological and physiological movement.” Therefore, if you are going through difficulties as a result of a move that has forced you to change climate, focus on your social connection can also help.
If it’s somewhere completely new, joining classes and group activities can be a good way to go. The expert also recommends resume routines and rituals from your previous lifestyle. For example, your regular evening and morning routines “can give you a sense of comfort when everything is quite new”.
According to Sayeed, loneliness is a common challenge and one must remember that “you can still draw on support from your previous place.” “You can still call them when you feel bad to help you with that adaptation.”
